Please. People didn’t vanish into thin air. Unless… “Someone must’ve taken her.”The Queen…
He braced his hands on his hips with a scowl. “If someone else had been there, Ruairi would’ve scented them.”
There was only one other explanation. “She figured out how to evanesce.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
If Aveen had been having trouble evanescing, getting back would be nearly impossible—especially if she panicked. She could literally beanywhereon this cursed island. What if she’d ended up back in Gaul and someone recognized her from the trial? What if she’d landed in Graystones where she was presumed dead? What if she’d ended up in some random shite town and could never get back home?
Shit. She could be in the feckin’ Black Forest right now. The Queen could have her in the castle.
She could be dead.
I kicked the bottles aside on my way to the armoire. “What business do you have teaching her anything about magic?” He’d been cursed so long, he probably couldn’t even remember what true power felt like.
“Some of us aren’t happy ignoring a woman in need.”
“She doesn’t need to learn to evanesce.” She needed to stay put in that cottage where I’d left her so that she could be safe. I dragged the lone shirt from its hanger and threw it over my head. What had once been fitted now gaped around my chest and midsection.
“Yes, well, she’s determined to be with Keelynn when she wakes.”
I whirled, pinning him with my darkest glare. “Have you lost your feckin’ mind? Aveen can’t come here.” The Queen would find her then, and I would have wasted months without her instead of stealing every moment of her free time for myself. All of this would have been for naught.
Tadhg shrugged like he didn’t care. If she were his human, he’d be singing a different tune.
I dashed my hands through my hair. The walls, the ceiling, the floor…all of it closed in on me. I was being smothered, buried alive. No escape. My fingers and toes started going numb, my body determined to shut down while my heart raged in my chest. “What instructions did you give her?” I choked. “Your exact words. Leave nothing out.”
Tadhg’s pained wince left my stomach sinking with dread. “We’ve been working with her for months. I don’t really remember specifics.”
Of course he didn’t. That would have been to feckin’ simple. “Go back to the forest and tell that worthless dog to wait there in case she returns. Then find Eava, ask her to scry.”
With a nod, Tadhg evanesced.
I shoved the hem of my shirt into the waistband of my breeches and tightened my belt. And then I evanesced as well, through the wards, straight to the gates, back to the place I’d grown up but had never called home.
A pile of emaciated bodies had been stacked by the gates. My heart thrashed wildly as I searched the gaunt faces for one I recognized. Not here. She wasn’t here. My relief ended when a woman’s screams pierced the air. I sliced my palm and let the blood drip into the lock keeping the high gates closed, and…
Nothing happened.
Why hadn’t it worked? For as long as I could remember, my blood had let me pass through the castle wards. But that was before I’d betrayed the Queen. I had to get inside. I had to save Aveen.
“Mother! Mother!” The iron gates shuddered when I kicked them. “Mother!” If she didn’t show up in the next two seconds, I would—
The Queen’s smooth voice crooned from the black castle’s front steps. “Must you always be so dramatic?” Her blackened veins seemed more pronounced beneath her translucent skin. But what caught my eye was howyoungshe looked.Feckin’ hell.She looked no older than me. How many lives had she taken to regain such youth?
It doesn’t matter. Only one thing mattered, and I realized too late that I couldn’t come right out and ask if she had Aveen because then she’d know my love was alive and…
I dragged at my collar. What was with this feckin’ shirt? Was it trying to choke me?
The Queen’s mouth pinched as her gaze swept from my too-long hair to my dull boots riddled with scuffs. “What has happened to you?”
As if she didn’t already know. “This is your fault.Youdid this.Youtook her from me.” Tears burned my feckin’ eyes, and if there was one thing the Queen hated more than dirt, it was tears.
“You should place blame where blame is due. Your human stole from me. She had to pay for her crime.”
Truth. But truewhen? Did she believe Aveen had died on the cliffs, or was my love’s body in that castle right now?
“Honestly, Rían. I thought I taught you better. Look at you, throwing yourself away over some girl who met her end months ago. I am ashamed to call you my son.”